Solioccasus polychromus gen. & sp. nov., the most brightly colored hypogeous fungus known, is described from Papua New Guinea and tropical northern Australia south into subtropical forests along the Queensland coast and coastal mountains to near Brisbane. Phylogenetic analysis of molecular data places it as a sister genus to Bothia in the Boletineae, a clade of predominantly ectomycorrhizal bol...

primary information about different methods of vegetation sampling is important to researchers to decide about their sampling. in this study we applied five distance methods (closest individual, nearest neighbor, random pairs, point-centered quarter and angle orderd) to estimate plant density in three vegetation types including artemisia sieberi, juncus littoralis and punica granatum in mazanda...

Populations of Eruca sativa (Brassicaceae) from desert and Mediterranean (Med) habitats in Israel differ in their defense against larvae of the generalist Spodoptera littoralis but not the specialist Pieris brassicae. Larvae of the generalist insect feeding on plants of the Med population gained significantly less weight than those feeding on the desert plants, and exogenous application of meth...

Aqueous and organic (hexane, chloroform, and methanol) extracts of siliquae, stems and leaves, and seeds of Cleome arabica L. (Brassicales: Capparidaceae) were evaluated in the laboratory for their antifeeding and insecticidal effect on larvae of the cotton leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), using a leaf dipping bioassay with castor bean, Ricinus communis L. (...

Phytophagous insects use blends of volatiles released from plants to select hosts for feeding and oviposition. To behaviorally analyze complex blends, we need efficient and selective methods for elucidating neuron types, their ligands, and specificity. Gas chromatography-combined single sensillum recordings (GC-SSRs) from antennal olfactory sensilla of female moth, Spodoptera littoralis reveale...

• Herbivore-induced systemic resistance occurs in many plants and is commonly assumed to be adaptive. The mechanisms triggered by leaf-herbivores that lead to systemic resistance are largely understood, but it remains unknown how and why root herbivory also increases resistance in leaves. • To resolve this, we investigated the mechanism by which the root herbivore Diabrotica virgifera induces r...

We studied the projection patterns of antennal lobe (AL) interneurones sensitive to plant volatiles and female-produced sex pheromone components in the female moth, Spodoptera littoralis. Ten compounds (eight plant-derived compounds and two sex pheromone components) were singly applied to the antenna and, using intracellular recording and staining techniques, the physiological and morphological...

A new chemical compound was tested for its insecticidal activity against several major insect pests. The compound, called "flufenerim", has a core pyrimidine structure and an unknown mode of action and showed potent activity against the sweet potato whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), the green peach aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer), and the African cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduva...

The alkaline gut of Lepidopterans plays a crucial role in shaping communities of bacteria. Enterococcus mundtii has emerged as one of the predominant gut microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract of the major agricultural pest, Spodoptera littoralis. Therefore, it was selected as a model bacterium to study its adaptation to harsh alkaline gut conditions in its host insect throughout differen...

There is an increasing appreciation of the importance of transgenerational effects on offspring fitness, including in relation to immune function and disease resistance. Here, we assess the impact of parental rearing density on offspring resistance to viral challenge in an insect species expressing density-dependent prophylaxis (DDP); i.e. the adaptive increase in resistance or tolerance to pat...